Eavesdropping
by rosehill
Summary: Rocket hears something he should have never heard about someone else's past. Will it help him coping with his own past? Set just after season 2.


Synopsis: Rocket hears something he should have never heard about someone else's past. Will it help him coping with his own past? Set just after season 2.

Disclaimer: I don't own Galactik Football and I'm not making any money with this fic.

_Earsdropping_

Rocket awoke in his bed, in his parents' home. He had just been having a nightmare: him in the Sphere, fighting, attacking, hurting, and then he was realizing it was Tia who was lying in front of him, covered in blood, and he had been injuring her. Panting, he sat in his bed and tried to think rationally. This was only a dream. He hadn't hurt Tia. Well, not that way…

And yet there was something wild he missed about Netherball. He missed the feeling he was better than them all, he missed the way he could beat anyone… Who could understand how he had felt? Who?

He realised someone was talking downstairs. Of course, his mother was an early bird. She was probably talking to an early client just now while his father was still asleep. He got out of bed and went down the stairs to listen. There was something in his mother's warm voice that could make a nightmare vanish, even when she was talking about plants and prices.

The thing was, she didn't sound very happy just now. "It's a shop", she said. "Either you buy something, or you go away."

"Good!" a male voice said. "Give me… give me violets!"

"Modesty, in the language of flowers. Are you sure you don't want tiger lilies?"

"Give me violets!"

The young man decided he didn't like the way that client sounded. Said client mumbled something. "I don't think so" the shop assistant answered.

"I missed you, eyes of gold!"

Rocket came closer. He had never heard anyone calling his mother like that. She didn't seem to appreciate. "You used to call me _eyes of gold_ because you never bothered to memorise my name", she answered.

"Let's be serious", the man said again. "I made a big mistake twenty years ago. You had great potential and I was unable to see it. Now I can, so why don't you just follow me again?"

Rocket started to understand. That man was probably the agent who had lured his mother away from Akilian just after his birth. He bent closer, careful not to be seen. Walking in front of a client wearing nothing but his pyjama pants was not what his dad would call 'serious business'.

"Because I'm happy, now", his mother answered. "Leaving Akilian has been my biggest mistake. I've never seen my son grow up. Now I'm back with the man I love, I have a job I enjoy..."

"Oh, come on, Lara. You're married with a boring shopkeeper, you have an insignificant job and nobody knows who you are. Do you call that real life?"

For the very first time, Rocket could hear a hint of anger in his mother's voice. "Don't you dare insulting my husband", she said. "He's a man of high integrity. That's something you never heard of, apparently. And yes, I do love this _insignificant_ job. I make my clients happy and that's important for me. And that's Keira, not Lara."

The agent seemed to have run out of arguments. "You were good", he said. "You're wasting your talent here..."

When Keira talked again, she sounded as if she had been restraining herself from speaking her heart out for ages. "I _know_ I was good. And I know the only reason I was never successful was because I was too nice to survive among sharks like you. I never slept for a role even though you kept harassing me." (Rocket flinched. The idea of his parents having a sex life was somehow disturbing to him.) "I never sold my soul to the devil. And now you're coming back to me and say you're sorry, but people like you never feel sorry. Let me guess: it's your girlfriend, isn't it? My former rival, I can't remember her name. I bet she dumped you and that's why you're upset. And you want to use _me_, the person she despised the most, to hurt her, and then you want to dump me like an old sock. I won't enter that nasty game, understood? I'm better than that. That's two credits."

"What?"

"The violets. Two credits."

Rocket felt a sudden surge of pride. He heard the client rummaging in his purse. "Don't you think it's a bit expensive?" he asked.

"Don't buy them if you don't want them."

"You haven't changed at all, have you?" the man asked suddenly. "Still so boring and meek. You believed you were better than other people just because you were nice with insignificant employees but actually you're just a weakling, unable to stand up for yourself. And I'm so glad I never slept with you because you're probably as boring in bed as everywhere else, and…"

This was too much for Rocket. He banged the door open, walked to the client and grabbed his collar. "You!" he said. His mother gasped and stepped back. The agent had turned very pale and was trying in vain to loosen the boy's grip around his neck. Rocket felt elated. He was going to hurt that man, to make him pay for the way he had just bullied his adorable mother!

Then Keira spoke in a slightly trembling voice. "Rocket, put him down now."

"He was insulting you, mom!" the young man shouted.

"Because he's a bad person, but you're not like him."

"He deserves it!" Rocket insisted, boiling inside. How could his mother act as if being bullied was not important? Couldn't she stand up for herself?

"Rocket, _please_! He's weak. Only weak people feel the need to bully. He's not worth it. Please, don't..."

Rocket glanced aside and saw that his mother was on the verge of tears. She seemed to be afraid of _him_. Suddenly, he remembered the way Meï, Yuki and Tia had stared at him the first time they had seen him in front of the Sphere. There was the same look in her eyes now, the same incomprehension.

Slowly, he put the agent down on the floor. The client stared at him with a mixture of fear, anger and incomprehension, and walked slowly to the door without trying to pick up the violets that were now spread all over the floor. "You'll hear of me!" he said just before leaving.

Keira sat down and buried her face into her hands. Rocket came closer, now worried. He had never seen his mother so upset and he hated the fact that he was actually the one who had upset her. "Mom, are you ok?" he asked.

She didn't say anything at first. He wondered if she was crying and he felt so helpless that it was turning him mad. If Meï or Dame Simbaï or even Micro-Ice had been there, they would probably have known what to say or do. He was useless at comforting people.

"Can you put a shirt on you, now?" she finally asked without moving her fingers.

"Oh! Of course." He went back to his room and grabbed the first clothes he could find. His dad was snoring which meant he was lucky: Norata could become quite dangerous when someone was upsetting his wife. Rocket went back downstairs and found that the sign 'closed' was on the door. He didn't know what to do so he swept the floor and put the violets onto the compost heap. Then Keira left the bathroom, looking as if she had just been crying.

"Are you okay?" he asked again.

"Just bad memories coming back", she gasped. "I'm fine. Listen, I'm sorry. You should have never heard that."

Bad memories were coming to him, too. He could see Tia injured on the last day of the cup and he remembered how small and fragile she had looked and how he had wanted to _kill_ Luur. Yet a few days before, he had injured her himself in the Sphere and he had _enjoyed_ it… at first. He felt dirty. Why did he have to hurt everyone he cared for?

"It's okay", he said. "I'm a big boy. There are things I can hear."

"There are things I'd prefer you not to hear. Private things. I'm sure you're not telling me everything about your private life, are you?"

He thought of the night he had spent with Tia in that hotel room and nodded. Of course he was not going to tell his parents about it, even though they may suspect he was no virgin any more.

"Good", she said. "What would you like for breakfast?"

"I'll cook." He practically ran to the kitchen and grabbed something. She sat down on a chair behind him and he felt he had to say something. He had upset her, after all. She could hardly watch a violent movie without crying and he had threatened to hurt someone just in front of her… What would a normal person do in this kind of situation?

"I'm sorry", he said with his back still at her.

"It's okay. You wanted to protect me, didn't you? You overreacted a bit, but thank you."

"You're not blaming me?"

"I'm blaming _him_. Men like him never learn, never _want_ to learn. That's the worst mistake someone can do. Well, one of the worst."

She got up and embraced her son, thinking of how they were different from each other and how she liked the way they were different and wishing she had gotten to know him earlier. He didn't hug her back. _I didn't overreact_, he thought. _That man just didn't have the right to talk to her like that! I don't understand her. She must be an angel or something like that. Someone has to protect her. Why can't she see how dangerous the world is?_

He patted her shoulder awkwardly. "Mom, please..."

"Time alone?"

He nodded, relieved. She kissed him on his cheek and left the room, and he tried to understand what she had told him. _Not wanting to learn is the worst mistake you can make... Only the weak feel the need to bully.._. What did she think he should learn? What did she mean by bullying, exactly? It was so easy for a natural born pacifist to say that violence was pointless. He couldn't see the world through her eyes. He couldn't stop fighting his dark side…

His wrist phone rang and made him jump. It was Tia, who was still on the Obia Moon. "Hello", she said happily. "How is the weekend?"

"It's okay", he lied slightly. "What about you?"

"Good. But I miss you, eyes of gold."

He jumped. "Don't call me like that!"

_The end._


End file.
